ARTSBEAT; Design for Abramovic Art Center to Be Revealed

By MELENA RYZIK

Published: May 7, 2012

On Monday, the globe-trotting performance artist Marina Abramovic is to unveil the design of the new art and education center she plans to build in Hudson, N.Y. Called the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art, it will be designed by the architects Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of the firm OMA and housed in a former theater that is now an indoor tennis court. Built in 1929, with 20,000 square feet of space, it is among the largest buildings in the town, two hours north of New York City.

''I say to them, I would like to make a levitation room, I would like to have a digital temple,'' Ms. Abramovic said of her conversations with the architects. ''There will be a room for drinking water and drinking water in slow motion.''

In a phone interview last week she added: ''It's going to be completely unique and special, like nothing else. It's going to be long durational, and to educate the public about long durational work.'' Ms. Abramovic said she hopes to use the center to train others in what she calls the ''Abramovic method,'' in which audience members become performers and vice versa; with every visitor outfitted in a lab coat, the distinction between artist and onlooker will melt away, Ms. Abramovic said.

The architects took this mission as their design task. ''We were very interested in creating a one-of-a-kind typology that is very specific to long-duration performances,'' Mr. Shigematsu said. ''We really welcomed anything that is different from a typical theater program.''

Part of the premise of the institute is that visitors will devote time to it: ''When you arrive,'' Ms. Abramovic said, ''you have to sign a contract that you will stay a minimum of six hours.'' There is no penalty for leaving early, but endurance is rewarded. ''The concept is very clear,'' she said. ''I'm asking you to give me your time, and if you give me your time, I give you experience.''

Among the experiences will be a special chair that Ms. Abramovic, Mr. Koolhaas and Mr. Shigematsu are designing together. Mr. Shigematsu said it would be a hybrid between a wheelchair and a massage chair, to be used for repose and even sleeping. These ''long durational'' chairs will come complete with an attendant, Ms. Abramovic said, who will wheel tired visitors to sleeping areas and back to an auditorium when they awake.

Another feature will be the constant focus on connecting activites to performances; Mr. Shigematsu used the example of a baseball game, where the crowd is paying attention but also engaged in other activities, like drinking. ''We arrayed all those programmatic rooms always facing the performance rooms,'' he said. ''While you're reading or having coffee, you can look down at the performance.''

Ms. Abramovic said she was a longtime fan of Mr. Koolhaas's work, having crossed paths with the Dutch architect when she lived in Amsterdam. ''He's a thinker,'' she said, ''and he influenced an enormous amount of young international artists to think globally.''

''To me, he's one of the really great artists in the century,'' she added. ''There's something about his austerity and simplicity - he looks like a monk to me, which I like.''

Along with becoming a draw in itself, Ms. Abramovic and Mr. Shigematsu said the ambition of the institute was to make Hudson - which sits near several other art institutions, like the DIA Beacon and the Storm King Sculpture Center - a destination for an art-loving crowd.

''People can see this different way of thinking and working with art which is not necessarily immediately sellable, or not sellable at all,'' Ms. Abramovic said. ''The most revolutionary ideas are not sellable, but only mind-changing.''

Though the plans for the center are ready, ground breaking is not imminent. Ms. Abramovic said she first has to raise $15 million. ''Next year, I cancel all my activities to do that,'' she said. ''I really want to see as an artist, if I have this vision, how I can really make it to make the dream true. I want to do it by myself.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.